Original and comprehensive, Magic in the Ancient Greek World takes the reader inside both the social imagination and the ritual reality that made magic possible in ancient Greece.

• Explores the widespread use of spells, drugs, curse tablets, and figurines, and the practitioners of magic in the ancient world
• Uncovers how magic worked. Was it down to mere superstition? Did the subject need to believe in order for it to have an effect?
• Focuses on detailed case studies of individual types of magic
• Examines the central role of magic in Greek life

Derek Collins is an Associate Professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Michigan. He has written extensively on Greek poetry and its performance, including Master of the Game: Competition and Performance in Greek Poetry (2005). Collins has also published on Greek divination and magic, including articles on bird divination, the criminalization of magic in Athens, and the intellectual background to classical Greek magic.